Affordable Housing Impact Fee

What is the Affordable Housing Impact Fee (AHIF)?

On November 18, 2014, the San José City Council approved the adoption of an Affordable Housing Impact Fee (AHIF) to help address the need for affordable housing connected with the development of new market rate residential rental units.

AHIF requires all projects with 3 to 19 dwelling units to pay an impact fee per livable square foot to satisfy its affordable housing requirement.

The AHIF increases by 2.4% annually. Please see the following rate schedule:

Fiscal Year

Per Livable Square Foot Rate

July 1, 2017 - June 30, 2018

$17.41

July 1, 2018 - June 30, 2019

$17.83

July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020

$18.26

July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021

$18.70

PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE AHIF

On November 5, 2019, the Housing Department presented a report and set of recommendations to update the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance (IHO). If these proposed changes are adopted, then the AHIF will be phased out. All current AHIF projects will remain in the program and complete their requirements. Any projects with five or more residential units will be subject to the IHO, and the IHO will be the main program moving forward.

Developments in San Jose that create 3 to 19 new, additional or modified dwelling units for RENT are subject to the requirements of the AHIF. At this time the AHIF does NOT apply to For-Sale dwelling units (an Affordable Housing Compliance Plan still must be submitted - as described below).

The Housing Department has prepared the following documents that outline the process for fulfilling the AHIF requirements.

For a quick summary, please see the linked AHIF Fact Sheet.

What is the Affordable Housing Compliance Plan?

The Affordable Housing Compliance Plan Application packet: 1) provides background and a general understanding of the Affordable Housing Programs, 2) defines what information must be provided for the Housing Department to determine if the project has an affordable housing obligation, and 3) describes how a project may satisfy that affordable housing obligation.

In order to determine the extent of the affordable housing obligation, and whether any exemptions may apply, all development projects with residential dwelling units seeking permits are required to submit an Affordable Housing Compliance Plan application. Developers who claim their project is exempt or waived from the AHIF must comply with this process in order for the claim to be evaluated by Housing Department staff.

A formal submittal of the Compliance Plan does require a developer to also submit an application fee. The Compliance Plan does have information that may be used for estimation purposes. Please download a copy of the Compliance Plan to your computer to activate the functionality, including a fillable worksheet to estimate the AHIF obligation.